Troyka
NEWS
- Check out Troyka’s set from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival last May on the BBC 3 Jazz on 3. Featuring tracks from their highly acclaimed debut self-titled album Troyka as well as an interesting interview with Chris Montague.
- Listen here on the BBC iPlayer – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sv78h
WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
“On the strength of their powerful live shows, Troyka are widely tipped to create the kind of interest that Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear made when they first arrived on the London scene”. Observer Music Monthly ****
“Troyka are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with; like King Crimson for the iPod generation”. Time Out
“A brand new band with brand new material, a 3 piece who constanly mix loops with grooves yet have a good acoustic feel throughout”. BBC Radio 3 – Jazz Line-up
“Troyka slot together to make tight, muscular avant-jazz-rock.” Jon Newey (Editor of Jazzwise Magazine) – March 2009
“They’re a cerebral jam band with a funky edge and a relentless drive, with guitarist Chris Montague borrowing much of John Scofield’s angular distorto dialect”. TIMEOUT
‘Guitarist Montague is fast emerging as one of the most imaginatively skilled young axesmith’s on the London scene, standing out from the increasing talented six-stringers with his own angular yet melodic style, and some serious virtuosity.’ JAZZWISE
‘…it’s Montague’s superb guitar work that provides the edge here. Acknowledging the influence of NYC improv jazz-rock guitar master Wayne Krantz, Troyka combines biting angular melodies with fractured rhythmic figures that once again blur the line between the composed and the improvised…..Montague very much coming across as the leader, it was he who combined stunning technique tempered by a masterful sense of melody and the guitar’s multiple tonalities.’ Mike Flynn – Jazzwise Magazine
1. Troyka Podcast – 1/1 – 4.29
Listen to Troyka talk about their debut band album ‘Troyka’
LISTEN – Click to play
1. Tax Return – 4.05
2. Clint – 6.12
3. 140 – 1.35
4. Golden – 4.57
5. Bear – 4.52
6. Cajoch – 2.40
7. Twelve – 3.58
8. Born in the 80’s – 6.56
9. Noonian Soong – 5.37
10. Call – 2.20
11. Zeitgeist – 1.44
Total – 45.03
Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6,7,8,9 and 11 by Chris Montague and tracks 4, 5 and 10 by Kit Downes.
Produced by Troyka
Executive Producer Dave Stapleton
Recorded by Robert Harder at Harder Sounds on 14th and 15th Oct 2008 and 6th April 2009.
Mixed and mastered by Robert Harder at Harder Sounds, London in November 2008 and April 2009.
Chris Montague – guitar / loops
Kit Downes – organ
Joshua Blackmore - drums
Troyka are Chris Montague (guitars and loops), Joshua Blackmore (drums) and Kit Downes (organ), three young musicians based in London whose intense live shows have seen them hotly tipped to follow in the foot steps of Polar Bear and Portico Quartet and become the next young band to explode from the capital’s fertile jazz scene. A multi-textured trio with a febrile imagination where no role is pre-defined, their music twists and mutates in an ongoing dialogue inspired by a shared love of Aphex Twin, the angular world of iconclastic New York saxophonist Tim Berne and the blues-jazz-rock groove of legendary Steely Dan and Billy Cobham guitarist Wayne Krantz.
With their visceral mash-up of rock, jazz and dance music, Trokya sound more like Tony William’s Lifetime remix by Burial than the classic hammond organ trio. But then that’s the point, they’re part of a new generation of young musicians who refuse to be constrained by the old boundaries. To whom the old question of ‘what is it’ is replaced by ‘is it any good’? Troyka live in a post hip-hop world where you can take whatever source materials you like and do your own singular thing with it.
Recorded by noted engineer Robert Harder (Acoustic Ladyland, Babyshambles, Brian Eno etc), Troyka’s self-titled debut distills the essence of the bands intense live shows in to a finely focused album. Fom the elemental goove of Tax Return, to the slide-driven throb of Clint, sly groove of Noonian Song, shimmering, tricksy Twelve and the twisted beauty and carefully calibrated mayhem of Born in the ‘80s, it perfectly nails the bands dark-toned lyricism, shape-shifting grooves and intense improvisational power. Play Troyka loud, they won’t let you down.
